Church group helps with garden

By Sandy Morris

Several members of Matthews Memorial Presbyterian church joined other gardening enthusiasts at the Ben Richey Boys Ranch Albany campus  this past Sunday to help  the boys get their garden started. 

One of the organizers, Alicia Burton, said the annual project is sponsored by the Sallie Matthews Circle at the church and that the entire church gets involved.

“We take lunch out to BRBR after church and everyone comes out and eats,” Burton said. “After lunch, we work for a few hours, break for dessert, and then finish up the day. We end up spending about six hours working on this project.”

The house residents and house parents work with church members to prepare and plant the garden and orchard for the year.

A total of 24 fruit trees were planted, including apple, pear, peach, plum, and apricot.

Despite the unusually hard week of winter weather in February, Burton said only about three existing trees in the orchard were questionable as to whether they would survive and bloom this year. 

The participants also planted blackberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, various herbs, tomatoes, peppers, corn, okra, green beans, multi-colored carrots, peas, squash, and zucchini.

The Sallie Matthews Circle donated money for needed supplies, and Connie Kilburn, who owns H&H Garden Center in Breckenridge, donated all the plants and seeds.

Burton said the group was able to accomplish several tasks during the afternoon. 

We redid the drip irrigation system in the garden,” said Burton. “We also enlarged the protective cages around some of the trees that have grown.”

This is the 17th anniversary of the BRBR in Albany, and Burton said this project is easily one of the favorite annual church events.

“We really look forward to working together and working with the boys and house parents at the ranch,” she said. “The boys always seem to enjoy the afternoon as much as we do.”